On the side of the highway, tonight, I met a woman I've been interviewing for 9 years, for a little dinner. We talked about Jews for Jesus, Obama, Mexico, the fiddle, felafel, pets, politics, celibacy, Catholicism, the symphony, voluntary simplicity, vegetarianism, and why she decided to join and then leave the community about which I am writing--why it's still a very dark subject for her, and why she still googles the name of the community on the internet, at least once a week. She says it's politics, in part, that brought her back out into the world--reminded her of international affairs and national affairs. Obama makes her cry. In a good way. She started crying in the good way over felafel (or falafel). I felt very satisfied after our conversation, like someone invited me to go to the moon--or another planet--and back to earth with her. I got to be a passenger in the little passenger cart.

Most of my life, on Rosh Hashana, I was watching someone get stung by a bee while eating an apple with honey, in the backyard of Temple beth El. This was a different kind of celebration, today, but a very good one. L'shanah tovah. May it be a sweet one.